


How to Say

by zhedang



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Communication Failure, Ereri Secret Santa 2015, Foreign Language, Language Barrier, M/M, Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-25
Updated: 2015-12-25
Packaged: 2018-05-09 05:03:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5526416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zhedang/pseuds/zhedang
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eren doesn't speak much English. Levi doesn't know a single word of Turkish. They meet on a bus bound for Xi'an, China and make it work anyway.</p>
            </blockquote>





	How to Say

**Author's Note:**

> Another ereri secret santa present for tumblr user 2000mistymornings. The prompt was just "Levi loves Eren's eyes," so I took that and ran wild. I LOVE language barrier fics and there is not nearly enough of them online. So I followed my tradition of writing incredibly self-indulgent gift fics and took a crack at it. 
> 
> ...I've always wanted to go to Xi'an.
> 
> HUGE SHOUTOUT to ninanna @ AO3 / ninannarambling @ tumblr for helping me out with Turkish filler words! 
> 
> As for the Mandarin, 我学了中文三年了，可是我的中文不太好. Any mistakes are my own (and probably authentic since neither Levi nor Eren are that great at Mandarin either.) 
> 
> Chinese New Year ain't until February, but fuck it, it's still a winter holiday.
> 
> With all that said, please enjoy!

The man sitting across from him on the bus has the most gorgeous eyes Levi has ever seen.

Erwin may argue otherwise, but Levi does have some manners. And, usually, those manners include not staring at people. But no matter how hard he tries to keep his gaze away, Levi keeps being drawn back to the man and his fucking spectacular eyes.

They are golden, closer to the bronzish yellow of a cat’s eyes than any human eyes he’s ever come across. The man’s face is turned away slightly, looking out the bus window, but Levi can see flecks speckling the surface of his irises—gray and maybe even some green. The man appears to be a foreigner like Levi and Levi wonders where he'd journeyed from. Did he come from a place where golden eyes like his were common or were they just as extraordinary in his own country?

Levi has a hard time believing eyes like that could be common anywhere.

The bus is packed full of people traveling home for the New Year. While Levi is short enough that he blends in with the crowds in China, the man across from him is tall even according to Levi’s American standards. Due to his height and the bus being crammed with people, the man’s knees jut out into the narrow aisle separating his seat from Levi’s. His knees occasionally brush against Levi’s whenever the bus makes a stop or takes a turn. Half a year ago, this encroachment on his personal space would’ve annoyed Levi, but since moving to China he’s become more accustomed to accidental touches from strangers since it is unavoidable in the big cities.

Besides, the rest of the man is just as gorgeous as his eyes.

Levi is so busy at failing to not stare that it takes him a moment to notice that the man is staring back. When he catches Levi's gaze, the raises one of his thick eyebrows in a clear question and the apology slips out of Levi.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to—sorry. I was just, uh, just wondering if you are an American?”

He hasn't been, but it’s a fair enough question to ask. Levi is stopped on the street all the time by other foreigners asking if he’s an American or if he speaks English. Sometimes they need help and other times they are just relieved to find another outsider to speak with. It can get lonely being surrounded by people who don’t speak the same language as you, even in a nation of over a billion people. Most of the expats Levi has met thus far in China rarely venture out from their small circle of fellow foreigners, with the rare exception of people like Hange, who threw emself wholeheartedly into any social situation and emerged each time with a new friend.

The man’s expression shifts from questioning to somewhere between amused and confused. He licks his lips—drawing Levi's gaze momentarily to his mouth before he snaps his eyes up again-- and says, “I am sorry. My English is, şey ee… my English is not good."

The words are stiffly formed, probably picked up from the pages of a textbook or lifted from a film. Levi can’t place his accent, though he’s never been good at that anyway. Fuck, but that voice. It is deep and rich, reverberating through the air and down into Levi’s bones. He wants to hear more of it, so he tries, “你说中文吗?”

The man is definitely leaning more towards amused now. He scratches the side of his jaw where he has at least two days’ worth of stubble growing. The words march from his mouth with the practiced ease of someone who has repeated the phrase many times already: “对不起，我不说中文.”

Damn. Levi makes one last attempt, reaching into the dusty corners of his mind where the few remaining scraps of his high school French lessons are stored. “Parlez-vous français?”

The man’s face is all confusion now. His brow furrows and he shakes his head.

Levi sighs and sinks back into his seat. So much for that then. Not that he had any idea what he would’ve said to the man if they could understand each other. Conversation has never been one of his strong points and he is even worse at small talk.

The man shifts in his seat too, leaning closer towards the window so he can pull something from his back pocket. It’s a tiny, battered book, the title printed in a language that Levi doesn’t even recognize. The man thumbs through its pages, finally stopping near the front. His golden eyes glance up at Levi over the book and then he reads aloud, “你叫什么名字?”

Oh. Oh! Levi sits up. “My name is Levi,” he answers, putting one hand to his chest and carefully enunciating like he does in the classroom for his students.

“Levi,” the man repeats. His mouth practically caresses the syllables and Levi realizes he might be in deep trouble. Some of Levi's thoughts must show on his face because the man's lips suddenly quirk up into a crooked smirk. The chill that has been prickling at Levi’s fingertips vanishes as his body heats from the inside out.

Levi nods, trying to keep the motion restrained. “What is your name?” he asks, pointing at the man to make his meaning clear.

“Eren,” the man says. Levi repeats the name and Eren's smirk turns into a full-on smile, his eyes crinkling at the corners and Levi is definitely in trouble. He swallows and feels himself heating up even more when he notices Eren tracking the movement with bright eyes. Definitely in deep, deep trouble.

Eren turns a page in his book, scanning the text. "你是不是, hmm, bi saniye, one second… 美国人?" he asks, taking a moment to find the right nationality to put into the question.

“Yes, I’m American.” Levi gestures in Eren’s direction. “Where are you from?” Eren frowns, so Levi repeats himself, slower.

“Aa! I… I am Turkish,” Eren says.

Turkish, huh? Levi checks the book cover again, studying the language on the cover. That must be Turkish too then. He doesn’t know much about Turkey. Levi is tempted to ask if a lot of people in Turkey have eyes like his, but he is a miserable flirt and Eren probably wouldn’t understand the question anyway. Not to mention it sounds sort of racist in his head.

Eren thumbs through the book again, scowling faintly as he searches for the phrase he wants. Finally he stops, looking up at Levi with triumph lighting his eyes before reading, “你做什么工作?”

His pronunciation isn’t bad, but his tones are really terrible, Levi thinks privately. Not that Levi has much room to talk. Levi can barely do a passable third tone and he has lived in China for months now. “I’m a teacher,” Levi tells him.

Eren’s brow furrows once more. “Teacher?”

“Teacher, like, um…” He begins and quickly aborts a pantomime, realizing he has no idea how to gesture out “teacher” without making a spectacle of himself on the bus. Instead, he digs out the first piece of paper he can find in his bag— a print-out of directions from the bus station to his hotel— and flips it over to draw.

Levi isn’t much of an artist, so his drawing consists of jagged stick figures (a taller one to be him and several smaller ones to be his students, though in all honesty many of his middle school students are the same height as him) and blobs to represent desks and a chalkboard. He shows the picture to Eren, who examines it and immediately tries to stifle a laugh.

“Oh, shut it,” Levi tells him. He doubts Eren understands the words, but the meaning must be clear enough because Eren shakes his head, both hands raised up with their palms out in apology. But he keeps laughing. Levi doesn’t mind much. His laugh is just as good as his voice, though not quite as brilliant as his eyes.

Once Eren regains control of himself, Levi points to his stick figure portrait at the front of the shoddily drawn classroom. “I’m a teacher,” he says again. “I teach.”

“Teach? Aa, öğretmen,” Eren declares, nodding with understanding.

“Yes, right.” Levi assumes that was right anyway, since he has no idea what Eren said. “I teach English.”

Eren absorbs this, then points towards the ground. “China? America?”

“China. I teach English in China.” Eren nods some more, practically beaming. Levi just can’t believe they are even managing to have a conversation. “You?” he asks, pointing to Eren. “What do you do?”

“I…” Eren trails off, looking up towards the ceiling as though he might find the words he needs there. He reaches for Levi’s paper and pen and begins sketching, bent over so Levi cannot see until he is done. He finishes after a couple minutes with a flourish, holding the paper out for Levi’s inspection. On it he’s drawn a man that is clearly himself, leaning over a car with its hood popped up. It’s a much better picture than Levi could ever manage and this fact, along with the information contained in his image, makes Levi suspect Eren must be very good with his hands. The thought starts something burning low in his gut, igniting the spark that was lit there when Levi first noticed Eren’s eyes.

“Mechanic?” Levi guesses. “You fix cars?”

“Fix! Yes, fix,” Eren says approvingly. He picks up his phrase book again, turns a few pages, and asks, “你多少岁?”

“Thirty-three,” Levi says, taking back the paper to write his age down as well.

Eren reads the number on the paper and chuckles. “No!” he says, making a circle around his own face in an obvious reference to Levi’s young appearance, the face that has probably cursed Levi to being carded at liquor store until he is well over sixty.

“Yes,” Levi insists, tapping the 33. “You?”

Eren, it turns out, is twenty-six. Levi learns that he has a mother and a sister, but no father. (Levi couldn’t tell from Eren’s stilted explanation whether Eren’s father was dead or otherwise out of the picture, but it was quite obviously a sour topic, so he dropped that line of questioning right away.) He finds out that Eren is also getting off the bus at Xi’an—at the same station as him too— which sends Levi's mind into a fury as he tries to work out a way to invite Eren to a bar or to his hotel or... _something_. But he's no good at picking up strangers when they both speak fluent English, so the notion seems impossible.

Finally, he learns that today is Eren’s fourth day in China, having apparently traveled south from Mongolia and Russia before that. Levi gestures towards Eren’s only luggage on the bus, a fat bag stuffed under his seat, and asks if Eren is a backpacker, but Eren doesn’t understand the question no matter how many times Levi rephrases it.

“You like to travel?” Levi finally asks instead, expecting nothing more than a yes in response.

But Eren considers his question carefully for a few moments before shrugging.

“You don’t know?” Levi says in disbelief. Eren nods. “Why do you travel then?”

Eren rubs one hand up and down the side of his face, thinking. He sighs and mutters something in Turkish before taking the paper and pen. Levi watches as he draws a young man beside his earlier picture of himself. “I have a… a…” Eren looks up at Levi, prompting him for the right word.

“Friend?” Levi guesses. There’d been no mention of a brother when they went over their families earlier.

“Yes.” Eren lays a finger over the picture of the friend. “My friend, he... ııh, likes... no, he wants. He wants to travel. But…” Eren frowns and shakes his head from side to side.

“Your friend wants to travel, but he can’t travel?” Levi asks.

“Yes. So… I go,” Eren finishes.

Levi doesn’t really get it, but he nods anyway. Eren is quiet after that, fingers playing idly with the pen in his hands. He has thick gloves on, but he still manages to twirl the pen deftly between his fingers. Levi settles back into his seat to observe Eren in his pensive state, taking advantage of Eren’s distraction to soak in the contours of his face, the brilliance of his gold eyes.

They arrive at the bus station not long afterwards. Eren’s mood shifts again as soon as the bus halts. He smiles warmly as he hands the paper and pen back to Levi, who tucks them away in his jean pockets. He’ll probably need the directions to get to the hotel, since he's never been to it before and his cell phone service proved itself unreliable the last time he visited Xi’an.

Eren follows right behind Levi as they step off the bus and exit the station. Eren looks up and down the street they step out on with wide eyes, drinking in the sights with plain delight. Levi hadn’t asked, but he can tell that this is Eren’s first visit to the city. This is only Levi’s third trip to Xi’an, but he feels a responsibility to ensure Eren doesn’t get himself lost. “Do you know where you are going?” he asks.

Eren looks down at him, bangs falling across his forehead. “Can you repeat that?” he says. The words come out smooth, as they should considering how many times he’s said it to Levi in the last couple of hours.

“Do you know where you are going?” Levi says again, pointing north down the street and then south.

Eren shrugs his broad shoulders up and down. “Food,” he answers, putting one hand on his stomach.

Levi wonders if Eren’s itinerary is really that vague or if he is also hoping to linger with Levi a while longer. The way Eren angles his body to stand close to Levi makes him think that yes, he's not alone in feeling a spark here, but maybe Eren is just really friendly. Shit, Levi has never been good at this. He swallows. “Do you want to eat with me? I know a good place nearby.”

Eren frowns in concentration for a moment and Levi is about to repeat himself when Eren's expression clears and he grins, nodding.

So Levi leads Eren away from the main road and into the labyrinth of smaller streets that he learned on previous visits, hoping his memory serves him. Eren walks beside him with his bag slung over his shoulder, head turning every which way as he takes in all of the neon-lit signs glowing brighter as the sun sets. Levi concentrates on making sure his suitcase doesn't bang into anyone. The streets are even more crowded than usual with people completing last minute preparations for the approaching celebrations.

With the sun going down, the temperature is slowly dropping further, but Levi can't be bothered to stop and dig his warmer jacket out of his luggage. He meant to put it on before getting off the bus, but Eren had distracted him. Levi shivers once, then twice before Eren stops him with a hand on his arm and shrugs out of his coat, holding it out to Levi.

“I can't--” But Eren shakes it at him insistently, gesturing at his torso to indicate the second coat he'd had on underneath the first one. “All right, fine,” Levi says, unable to put up any further protests when Eren is grinning broadly with such nice, white teeth. He puts on Eren's jacket, surprised at how heavy it is. Of course it is several sizes too large for him, but Eren takes in the sight of him with a distinctively pleased slant to his mouth. That smile, more than the jacket loan, warms Levi right up.

When Levi makes to start walking again, Eren slips one arm around Levi to rest his hand on the small of Levi's back. “Okay?” he asks, palm pressing lightly against Levi's spine.

More than okay, Levi wants to say. He swears he can feel the heat of Eren's skin against his, despite all the clothing layers between them. Eren has got to be flirting. No one just puts their hand on a stranger's back like this unless they are interested. Levi's throat is tight, so he nods. It's still enough to make Eren's eyes glow, golden as the sun setting before them.

They attract a little attention, being two foreign men walking pressed together like lovers, but no one bothers them and Eren doesn't seem to mind the extra scrutiny. Instead, he alternates between looking around at all the sights and glancing down at Levi to smile, thumb moving in small circles against his back.

They are nearly to the destination Levi has in mind when Eren steps away, moving towards a woman knelt beside her bicycle. He announces his presence with a soft “你好,” and a funny little wave. The woman looks up from where she is struggling with her slipped bike chain and returns his greeting politely.

“我...可以修复吗?” Eren asks. He points at the slipped chain to make his meaning clear. The woman hesitates, glancing between Eren and Levi, but finally she nods and stands up, brushing dirt from the knees of her slacks.

Eren kneels down in her place and examines the dangling chain for a moment before standing again and carefully flipping the bike upside down. After stripping off his gloves and stuffing them into his coat pockets, he puts the chain back onto the gear by the bike's rear axle. Next, he guides the chain around the bigger gear, turning the pedals slowly with his free hand until the entire chain is back in place.

The woman begins to thank him profusely, but Eren holds up one finger, other hand patting his side. He frowns, glancing down, then looks up at Levi and reaches into the one of the pocket on the coat he'd loaned him. His hand emerges with a socket wrench.

Well. That'd explain why the jacket was so heavy.

“Say her...” he tells Levi, falling silent as he searches for the words. He begins to loosen the bolts on the rear axle, brow furrowed. “Say her so not again.”

Levi explains to the woman as best he can that Eren is trying to make sure the chain won't come off again, which proves to be a bit difficult since he has no idea how to properly say “bike chain” or “come off.” The woman seems to get the message though and they both watch as Eren pulls the rear wheel back until the chain is taut, checks that the wheel is straight, and then tightens the bolts again.

He drops the wrench back into Levi's jacket pocket and turns the bike right upside up, smiling at the woman. She begins thanking him again and he shakes his head, the “不客气” slipping from his lips easily. It's obviously another well-practiced phrase.

Eren rubs grease off his fingers with a worn handkerchief he produces from his back pants pocket and tugs his gloves back on before gesturing to Levi that they should go. The woman shoves ¥5 into Eren's hand and pedals off before he has time to do much more than blink. He calls “谢谢,” after her, but she has already disappeared down another block. Eren pockets the money and then they set off again.

The crowds grow thicker the closer they get to their destination, forcing them to walk closer together. Not that Levi minds at all. His hand brushes against Eren's and Eren loops his arm around Levi's back again. Finally, they arrive.

The Muslim Quarter is colorful during the day, but at night it is iridescent and breath-taking. Lights glow within and atop the stalls and shops that line the streets. Tourists and locals bustle by on all sides while steam and flame rise up from the numerous food stalls. Store owners hawk their wares over the din of thousands of people chattering and laughing and exclaiming with delight.

Eren stays close beside him, craning his neck to examine the mosque that is just barely visible from where they are and then the dried fruit stacked high on the table nearest them. Levi, however, is more interested in the smells than the sights. He can smell at least five different dishes from where they are standing and his stomach rumbles. He already knows what he wants, but he nudges Eren and asks, “Do you like mutton?”

Eren's brows pinch together. “Mutton?”

“Lamb?” Levi tries. “Do you eat lamb?”

Eren shakes his head to indicate he still doesn't understand, but he adds, “I eat... şey... all. No problem.”

That's good enough for Levi. He takes Eren by the wrist and leads him through the crowds to what his perhaps his favorite restaurant in all of Xi'an, if not China. “Restaurant” is a bit generous, since it is really an open-air food stall that shares some tables with its neighboring vendors. Levi scans the people eating at the tables and spots someone chowing down on the dish he has in mind.

Levi points at the bowl of 羊肉泡馍 and asks, “Does that look good?” Eren eyes it and nods, so Levi goes up to the stall and orders two.

The old man working the stall brings out a large bowl brimming with round flat bread for them to crumble. Levi sets to work, indicating for Eren to do the same. Eren takes off his gloves and wiggles his fingers at Levi, showing off the grease from the bicycle chain that still stains his skin. So Levi does Eren's share for him, taking care to tear the unleavened bread into small, bite-sized pieces.

Once the bread is broken, Levi passes the bowl back to the old man and takes Eren to the tables to wait. They squeeze in beside middle-aged man in a suit and tie, his tie tail stuffed into his breast pocket. Once they are sitting down, Eren pulls out the phrase book again and opens, humming quietly as he turns the pages. The book is really meant more for completing errands than holding in-depth conversations, but Eren combines its Mandarin vocabulary with his basic English knowledge in order to ask all sorts of questions. How long will Levi be in Xi'an? (Four days.) Where does Levi live in China? (Yulin, farther up north in Shaanxi province.) Has he ever been to Russia? (Never.)

Eren, it turns out, has spent most of the last year traversing Russia. Levi asks him what Russia is like and Eren tries to oblige him. His English has been improving in small increments as he remembers half-forgotten phrases and picks up new words from Levi, but he still isn't quite up to the tasks of describing Russia. His answer begins and ends with "Cold," with vague descriptions of some of the areas he visited peppered in-between. Levi doesn't follow everything he says, but he does realize that he was wrong to guess Eren's job as a car mechanic. Eren fixes (and builds) all sorts of things, trading his skills in exchange for a meal to eat or a place to spend the night as he moves from town to town.

All the while, they sit with their legs pressed together. Despite giving up his thickest jacket, Eren is warm against Levi's side. He keeps one arm around Levi's back, fingers idly toying with one of Levi's belt loops. Levi finds his face flushing from more than just the frigid air. Eren notices and chuckles, deep and throaty, paging through the book to find a word: 可爱.

Levi scowls at Eren. "I'm thirty-three," he reminds him. "You're the kid, not me."

Eren smirks, but keeps his finger pressed firmly against 可爱. "How to say this?" he asks. "In English."

"Cute," Levi answers reluctantly, flush spreading rapidly from his face to his neck.

"Cute," Eren murmurs. He leans forward a bit, breath brushing against Levi's ear. "You are cute, Levi."

"I'm not cute," Levi says, pushing Eren backward a few inches. He doesn't know how else to deal with Eren's gold eyes being so close.

Eren smiles and apologizes. "Not cute, hmm..." He looks in the book again and taps at something else: 帅哥.

Levi can live with that.

The old man emerges from the stall with their food. Each bowl is brimming with soup and packed full of mutton, bread, and noodles. Levi hasn't eaten anything since breakfast hours and hours ago, so he digs in with gusto. Eren is slower, tasting the separate ingredients first, and savoring every bite afterwards. He pulls his arm away to eat with, his free hand still flipping through the phrase book. He frowns, the furrow in his brow deepening the further into the book he gets.

"What are you looking for?" Levi asks.

"Iııh..." Eren hedges. "I want..." He finally finds the word he wants, eye lighting up like tiny suns. Eren reads it aloud, his eyes glinting. " _Wen._ "

 _Wen?_ Levi isn't sure what Eren meant to say and neither of the two _wen_ words we can think of (文 and 問) fit the context. "What is it?" he asks.

Eren slides the book across the table for Levi to see, pointing at the word. 吻. Levi doesn't know it, which isn't surprising since he can only recognize about three hundred characters on sight. He studies the pinyin ( _wen_ , third tone) and tries saying it aloud to himself. It sounds familiar, but he still doesn't recognize it. "Sorry," he tells Eren. "I don't understand."

"Kiss," the man next to them grunts. He pushes his empty dishes away and un-tucks his tie from his dress shirt pocket. "He's asking to kiss."

"Yes, kiss, 谢谢," Eren tell the man, apparently completely unconcerned that some random office worker been eavesdropping on their awkward flirting. He's leaning forward again, golden eyes way too close once more. This time, Levi's too captivated to push him back. He doesn't want to. The lights of the Muslim Quarter only make Eren's eyes seem more yellow and the flecks on his irises sparkle in the stalls' firelight. "I can kiss you?" Eren asks, voice so low Levi felt it in his bones.

"Y-yes," Levi says. Eren's crooked smile softens into something warmer, downright affectionate, and Levi hastens to add, "Not here, not now," because he's been thinking about this since he first noticed Eren's eyes on the bus. If he's gonna kiss Eren, he's going to take things as far as Eren is willing to let them go. And if Eren is as willing as he seems, there's no way any kiss is going to stay chaste enough for one of the most crowded streets in Xi'an. Not for long, anyway. "Come back to my hotel with me?" Levi asks, reaching out to take one of Eren's gloved hands in his.

"Hotel?" Eren repeats.

"Yeah. Do you understand?"

Instead of answering, Eren removes his hand from Levi's and picks up his bowl, devouring his remaining portion of 羊肉泡馍 in three big gulps. Levi hurries to finish his own food. The man gives them a thumbs up as they leave and Levi's flush travels up his neck to the top of his ears. Eren reclaims Levi's hand, twining their fingers together until their palms line up. Then leans down to quickly kiss Levi right behind one of his ears, whispering, "Yakışıklı."

Levi has no idea what that means, but Eren's eyes are shining bright when he pull away and Levi is far gone. He drags Eren by the hand all the way to the hotel. Even if nothing comes out of this night, Levi can think of no better way to start off the New Year.

But he hopes-- holy fuck does he hope-- that it'll be a lot more than just one night.


End file.
